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A rare-books vendor who was cleared of wrongdoing over an alleged plot to promote the handwritten lyrics to songs from the Eagles’ legendary “Hotel California” album, which singer Don Henley claimed had been stolen, contends the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer knew all alongside the accusations have been false however pursued felony fees towards him anyway.
In a 32-page lawsuit filed Thursday night and reviewed by The Independent, Glenn Horowitz says Henley deliberately hid the reality from cops and prosecutors and falsely portrayed the controversial New York City bookseller as a criminal with the intention to stop the lyric sheets from being bought. The go well with additionally lists longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff as a defendant.
Henley, alternatively, has lengthy argued that he at all times thought-about the lyrics to be his private property, and by no means supposed to offer them up.
Henley instructed police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s workplace that poet and creator Ed Sanders, who the Eagles employed in 1979 to pen a never-published memoir concerning the band had “burglarized [Henley’s] residential estate… to obtain possession of the handwritten lyrics.”
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Bookseller Glenn Horowitz, seen right here throughout his Manhattan felony trial, claims Don Henley is responsible for intentional infliction of emotional misery for accusing him of theft (Getty Images)
But Horowitz — who later bought after which resold the lyrics — contends in his criticism that Henley had in actual fact given them to Sanders earlier than their working relationship fell aside 5 years later.
After the termination of his contract to jot down the Eagles e book, Sanders “retained possession” of 11 notepads he obtained from Henley, which the rock star had stuffed with varied notes and music lyrics throughout the making of “Hotel California,” the criticism states. It says there was little question that Sanders, who wrote the definitive e book on the Manson Family and was a founding father of legendary underground band The Fugs, had “acquired… the handwritten lyrics legitimately and without theft or misappropriation.”
Horowitz’s criticism says that Henley’s bogus allegation that he knew the lyrics had been “unlawfully obtained” uncovered him to potential jail time, harmed his enterprise to the tune of $10 million, and induced him and his spouse Tracey “severe emotional distress.”
Testifying at Horowitz’s felony trial, Henley emphasised that the notepads with the lyrics have been his, and that under no circumstances did he ever bequeath them to Sanders.
“I always knew those lyrics were my property,” Henley mentioned on the stand. “I never gifted them or gave them to anybody to keep or sell.”
In an e-mail on Friday, lawyer Caitlin Robin, who’s representing Horowitz within the case, instructed The Independent, “Glenn is looking forward to his day in court. He already cleared his name when the charges against him were dismissed but it’s time to hold those responsible who were involved in his malicious prosecution.”
Henley didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The first stage of the contentious dispute between Henley and Horowitz will be traced again to 2005, when Horowitz and uncommon bookseller John McWhinnie, a onetime Horowitz worker who later drowned in a snorkeling accident, bought the lyric sheets from Sanders for $50,000, based on Horowitz’s criticism.
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The lyrics in query first went up for public sale in 2012 (Getty Images)
In 2006, the criticism says McWhinney and Horowitz bought the lyrics for $80,000 to songwriter Jack Feldman, who bought them again in 2011 to McWhinney and Horowitz for a similar quantity, with the intention to offset a debt he owed the pair. That identical yr, McWhinnie started negotiating a sale of the lyrics to former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia vendor Ed Kosinski, who finally purchased them for $65,000 shortly after McWhinney died in 2012, the criticism goes on.
That’s when, based on Horowitz, any connection he needed to the lyrics was formally severed, “never to be reassumed.”
In March 2012, Inciardi and Kosinski put a four-page excerpt from the bigger hoard of Henley lyrics up on the market in a web-based public sale, the criticism continues. That’s when Henley’s lawyer reached out to Kosinski to inquire about the opportunity of Henley shopping for again the pages for himself, the criticism states. In laying out their provenance, Kosinski instructed the lawyer that had bought the lyrics from Horowitz, who had in actual fact executed enterprise “amicably” with Henley beforehand, based on the criticism.
Horowitz labored with Inciardi, Kosinski, and Henley’s lawyer to draft a gross sales settlement for the 4 pages in April 2012, for the bargain-basement value of $8,500, the criticism states. But, it claims, Henley then filed a report with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department asserting that the pages “constituted stolen property and [were] unlawfully in the possession of Ed Kosinski and Craig Inciardi.”
Over the following two years, Inciardi and Kosinski continued promoting off pages from Henley’s notepads, placing a number of on the public sale block at Sotheby’s, based on the criticism. However, it says Henley continued to pursue his property, and issues hit a snag in 2014 when Henley’s lawyer contacted Sotheby’s to cease the sale of the unique lyrics to the Eagles’ 1977 hit, “Life in the Fast Lane,” claiming them to be “either counterfeit or stolen.”
In December 2016, Inciardi and Kosinski as soon as once more approached Sotheby’s, this time to promote Henley’s authentic drafts of the lyrics to the title observe from “Hotel California,” based on the criticism. But once more, Henley’s lawyer, together with Azoff, stepped in to cease the public sale, based on the criticism.
At this level, the Manhattan DA’s Office lastly opened an investigation into Inciardi, Kosinski, and Horowitz, and in June 2022, all three have been indicted on fees together with first-degree felony possession of stolen property, a felony carrying as much as 25 years behind bars.
Horowitz and the others pleaded not responsible. Sanders was by no means charged with against the law.
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Don Henley testified in courtroom that he by no means supposed to offer away his lyric sheets (Getty Images)
In his criticism, Horowitz argues that Henley and his workforce “knew or should have known” that he “lawfully owned and possessed the handwritten lyrics as of 2005,” and that he “lawfully exercised his right” to promote them in 2012. Instead, Horowitz contends, Henley “pursued, and materially assisted” authorities in bringing felony fees towards him “by making false statements… with malicious intent,” based on the criticism.
The trial kicked off in February 2024, amid intense media protection and testimony from Henley, who continued to reiterate his possession of the lyrics. A month later, the costs towards Horowitz, Inciardi, and Kosinski have been dropped amid perjury allegations and revelations that Henley’s attorneys had allegedly withheld about 6,000 pages of proof doubtlessly favorable to the protection.
“These delayed disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore in cross-examination of the People’s witnesses,” Assistant DA Aaron Ginandes wrote in a letter to the courtroom.
In dismissing the case, Judge Curtis Farber knocked Henley’s aspect for utilizing attorney-client privilege to maintain the proof from public view, permitting them “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging.” (Following the truncated felony trial, Henley sued Inciardi and Kosinski for the return of the lyric sheets. The case was settled final month, underneath phrases that stay confidential.)
Horowitz’s lawsuit accuses Henley of malicious prosecution, tortious interference, lack of companies, and intentional infliction of emotional misery. He is asking a decide to award him punitive damages, to be decided at trial, in addition to attorneys’ charges.
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